Home Alone (NES)

Home Alone is a game based on the movie of the same name. The player takes the role of Kevin McCallister. Your mission is to avoid the wet bandits Harry and Marv for 20 minutes. You survive by planting traps just like in the movie. You can carry only three traps at a time, and they can only be used a certain amount of times before they disappear. Each trap does different damage. If you are caught by Harry or Marv, you have to start all over again. This was a very mediocre game, even for its time, which is surprising knowing it was developed by Bethesda Softworks, the same developers behind such gems as The Elder Scrolls and the Fallout games. Seeing all the game's flaws reveals this was a rushed game that was shoveled out to stores just so the developer and publisher could make a quick dollar.

Alternatively, the game was released in two versions, with the only difference being their Game Over screen. The well-known one shows a puff of smoke with 'Oh No!' written inside it, and the other version shows Kevin McCallister screaming, "Oh No!". It is unknown why they made changes to the game over screen. Both variations of the game over screen can be seen in the screenshots below.

Contents

Screenshots

The title screen.

Inside the house.

Inside the treehouse.

Hiding in the basement.

Oh No!

Oh No! (Alternate)

Music

There's not a whole lot of music to offer in this game, even for 1991. George Sanger said Bethesda paid for him to fly down to there and only had a day to compose the music to the game. Sanger remembers the music being composed on an Atari ST, but does not remember the name of the sequencer he used to make the music. He said that Bethesda hired him to do the music as their original sound designer left them (possibly Julian Lefay). Sanger says that he was paid around $1000 to do the soundtrack. Even though there is not much music in the game, the songs fit with the theme of the game most of the time. The songs are action-paced to always make you on the run. While he is not credited, Julian Lefay designed the game's audio driver.